Eggless Red Velvet Cupcakes

Treat yourself to moist and fluffy red velvet cupcakes topped with buttercream frosting. No one can guess these light and delicious cupcakes are egg-free and nut-free. These Eggless Red Velvet Cupcakes are amazing and will soon become your favorite too!

Make your Valentine’s day more sweet and perfect with these soft and velvety red velvet cupcakes. These tender and super moist cupcakes are one of my all time favorites. They are that good! These eggless red velvet cupcakes are my favorite because of two reasons –

First, it’s the most easiest cupcake recipe that you will ever bake.

And secondly, the other best thing about these cupcakes is they are easy to put together and are made without butter – yet so moist and fluffy.

These cupcakes gets its name from the red color that goes in the recipe. Color plays a major role. So, if you add less color you will end up having a blood red cupcake – that’s so unappetizing. To attain that dark red/maroon-ish kind of a color (as you can see in the pic below), lots and lots of red color goes in this recipe.

Now, onto the recipe!

The recipe is pretty simple and a standard one. Shift dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients and combine both of them together. For the color – I have used Wilton red gel food color but any red food color will work just fine. Depending on the brand, you may need to adjust color (less or more) in the recipe.

I have tried baking this cake with fresh beetroot puree and believe me it gives amazing results plus it’s all natural. For beet puree, use 2-3 tablespoon of pureed beets. Remember to strain as we do not want any chunks of beets in our cake.

These are egg free cupcakes, so please do not substitute milk as it’s an essential ingredient. Milk moistened the batter, adds flavor and gives color to these cupcakes. Same goes for baking soda and vinegar.

Please do not substitute these two ingredients. Baking soda + vinegar together starts a chemical reaction that helps the cupcakes to rise. It’s a chemical reaction that produces carbon dioxide bubbles and that’s what make a cake/cupcake fluffy and light. I have received queries about adding vinegar in cupcakes/ cakes, but don’t worry you will not be able to taste vinegar in the recipe.

Regarding milk and water – You can either use 1.5 cup milk and skip the water or you can follow the recipe below – 1 cup milk and 1/2 cup water. Both are fine.

Moving on to the frosting. I know cream cheese frosting and red velvet cupcakes are made for each other and is a killer combination but since I was out of cream cheese, I have topped my cupcakes with buttercream frosting. And it tastes amazing.

Frosting no doubt adds a super creamy touch, but these cupcakes are so flavorful and delicious that you will not miss frosting at all. Hope you like this cupcake recipe and give it a try.

If you happen to make it then either drop me a line below or share your yum pictures with me on Facebook. Would love to see your creation!

Treat yourself to moist and fluffy red velvet cupcakes topped with buttercream frosting. No one can guess these light and delicious cupcakes are egg-free and nut-free. These Eggless Red Velvet Cupcakes are amazing and will soon become your favorite too!

Servings

Prep Time

18CUPCAKES

15MINUTES

Cook Time

25-30MINUTES

Servings

Prep Time

18CUPCAKES

15MINUTES

Cook Time

25-30MINUTES

Eggless Red Velvet Cupcakes

Votes: 28
Rating: 4.18
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Treat yourself to moist and fluffy red velvet cupcakes topped with buttercream frosting. No one can guess these light and delicious cupcakes are egg-free and nut-free. These Eggless Red Velvet Cupcakes are amazing and will soon become your favorite too!

Keep mixing. Add dry ingredients spoon by spoon alternating in between with milk and water. Meaning - add a spoon of dry ingredient + a spoon of milk + a spoon of water. Repeat the process till you finish all the ingredients.

Finally pour vinegar and beat it well. Vinegar needs to be added at the last. This creates a bubbly reaction (because of baking soda) and that will cause the cupcakes to rise well.

Line the muffin/cupcake tray with cupcake liners. This batter will be thin and liquid-y.

Pour and fill your cupcake liners 1/2 to 2/3 full of batter.

Place it in the hot oven.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Perfectly baked cupcakes.

Mine took 24 minutes to bake.

Moist and fluffy Red velvet cupcakes are ready.

Allow them to cool for few minutes and then unwrap the moist and fluffy cupcakes and enjoy.

If the cupcakes are stuck to the liner, then use a paring knife and run it across the edges to loosen the cupcake.

You can either sprinkle some powdered sugar on top or...

Prepare a buttercream frosting and..

Enjoy red velvet cupcakes with buttercream frosting with some sprinkles on top. 🙂

Same batter can be used to make a red velvet cake.

Pour batter into a greased 8 inch spring-foam and....

Bake @350 degree F for 28-30 minutes.

Or until the toothpick comes out clean.

FOR BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

Beat butter for 5 minutes until light and airy. Butter will loose most of it's yellow color at this point. Slowly add powdered sugar/icing sugar (spoon by spoon) and beat until it is well blended. Add milk to thin out it's consistency. If you like you can add food flavoring at this point. Mix again. Icing is good for 1-2 weeks in your fridge and for a month in your freezer.

Hii ruchi.. i loved it.. it comes out very well.. i love u.. thank u soo much for this delicious reciepe..i have tried red valvet so many times with other recipes but every time got failed but this time i did it.. thank u so much..

Sorry to hear about that. I can understand your disappointment. This is my most successful recipe and before I jump to conclusion, can you clear a few things for me?
1. I understand that you baked a cake instead of a cupcake. What size pan did you use?
2. Did you cream sugar and butter well?
3. Over-mixing could definitely be the culprit. But please reply so that I can help you with your query.

Hello Ruchi ma’am!
I’m a budding baker, I tried my very first batch of red velvet cupcakes today, for a family get together. I must tell you…this recipe turned totally foolproof and was the show stopper…every time I received a compliment, my mind voice thanked you immensely! Thank you!!!!

Hi Ruchi, for trial basis I followed half recipe . As you mentioned creaming of sugar and butter.. i did that for good 5 mins on 5 level hand blender.. still i gar.. it cud feel the grainy texture of sugar..it did not melt completley. Then, I added the dry, milk and water in intervals(15 secs whisking on hand blender) as you mentioned.. but when almost 3/4 qty ingredients where mixed..the batter split.. I cud see the white portion and on surface. Is it because of overcreaming of butter n sugar. my ingredients – milk, butter all were used at room temp. Pls help.

My creamed cake batter curdles at times too. But to be honest, it doesn’t affects the end results. Curdling/splitting usually happens with cake recipes that have eggs in it. In this case curdling happened because of milk. A slightly cold milk can cause this to happen.

To prevent this, cream butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy. It should be almost white in color. Meanwhile warm a part of milk in the microwave for few seconds and add that to the creaming mixture, this will take care of curdling.

If the milk still curdles, simply add a spoonful of flour and continue beating. This will absorb the excess liquid and everything will start to come together. So next time when your cake batter curdles, follow the steps above and I would suggest simply ignore the curdling and go ahead with the recipe. Everything will even out during baking.

Ankitha, the cupcakes are under cooked. Your oven temperature is high as a result of which the outer surface of the cupcakes got cooked earlier but the inner is still uncooked. My suggestion would be to lower the the temperature by 25 degrees and cook it a little longer (35-40 minutes) or until the toothpick comes out clean.

Sorry to hear that this cake didn’t turn out the way you had imagined. Possible reason for holes on the surface of the cake is – Trapped air bubbles. Simple solution for that – drop the pan on your counter a couple of times until the bubbles stop coming up to the surface this will take care of the holes.
Regarding burnt cake, at what temperature did you bake the cake at? 8 minutes is way less time for a cake.

Hi, i baked the cupcake recipe and while baking they were absolutely fine but after removing them from the oven they dropped in a little. Am not sure as to the reason behind that. Where could i have gone wrong?

Sorry to hear about that Harshna. This is my fail proof recipe and many readers have tried it with successful outcomes. Let’s see what went wrong here.
Sunken cakes is a common problem and it can be solved. Here are couple of reasons why a cupcake sinks and forms a crater in the center.

1. Were the cupcakes cooked from the center when you removed from oven? Did you perform the toothpick test?
2. Batter was mixed for long. If the batter was beaten for long, it incorporates too much air in the cupcakes. As a result of which they rise beautifully in the oven but when removed they deflate.

Hope that answers your query. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions.

Yes, Aj vinegar is a must for this recipe.
Vinegar makes the batter slightly acidic which results in moist cakes. The more the acid in a cake the more tender the cake will be. You can try substituting lemon juice with vinegar. Hope this helps! Thanks!

Hi Ruchi, I just saw this lovely recipe of yours and I am really tempted to bake these lovely red velvet cake… One thing that is bothering me is the measurement… Pls clarify… It says
2.5 cups all purpose flour (300-310 gms)
1.5 cup sugar (300gms)

Y there is a difference in the cup measurement… both are dry ingredients

Thanks Visheka!
Yes, both are dry ingredients but in different forms – one is powdered (flour) and the other one is grainy (sugar).
A dry measurement cup measures 125 grams for flour and 200 grams for sugar. Hope this helps! Happy Baking!!

Suchitha, buttermilk is a combination of vinegar and milk. For buttermilk – Pour 1.5 cup of milk into a bowl. Add 1 and 1/4 tablespoon vinegar to it. Stir to combine. Let sit for 5 minutes until the milk begins to curdle and becomes acidic. Butter milk is ready.

Hi ruchi
I must say I fall in love with your
Recipes. Tried 5 biscuits and all are hit. I tried red velvet cake also. That teast amazing, super soft. But 2 things happen one it got brown in colour n second the top most crust was bit hard. Though I kept eyes on my otg and took out the cake after 25 minutes as it started getting brown from out side but the toothpick test asked for more baking so I baked more but it discoloured. Please let me know the reason n caution I should take next time.
Shikha

Thanks for replying Ruchi. No, I am not confusing you with anybody else and I can’t dare to do so coz you can not even imagine how much I appreciate your recepies n regularly I make them too.
I am so sorry I confused you with my improper words. actually 5 biscuits recepies means I tried different cookies like coconut, jeera biscuits etc.
Red velvet cake means egg less red velvet cupcakes. Actually in a comment box I read that the same recipe can be followed for cake too only baking time increased so I tried to make a cake. Ruchi I read your recepies almost daily. I really love them.
Ruchi please tell me how can I prevent red velvet cupcakes from browning if I make it in form of cake.

Thanks for clearing Shikha, appreciate that. Glad to hear that you are enjoying my recipes.
To avoid cupcakes/cakes from browning, I would suggest lowering your oven temperature from 350 to 325 degree F. Every oven is different and it looks like maybe your oven is off by some degrees causing the cake to brown more. Lower the temperature and bake. Hope that helps, happy baking!!

Glad to hear that Shikha. Thanks for trying the recipe and sharing your wonderful feedback with me. Really appreciate that.
You can mail me your pictures at [email protected] . I wold love to see them. 🙂

Hey I tried this at home, but after adding the vinegar in the end, I think my milk tore because the batter became white and pink. And it remained like that after baking too. What is the solution for this?

Smrithi, was your cake batter warm by any chance? If the liquids (milk and water) added to the batter were warm than this will cause the curdling. To prevent this make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature and stir the dry and wet ingredients as explained in the recipe.

Hi Ruchi, I tried the recipe and it worked really well. I tried this with half the proportion and made a cake. Have you tried any cream cheese or buttercream frosting with it? Please, do share if you have. That would really help. Thanks again.

Hi Ruchi! Lovely Recipe. I just had one doubt. I read in one of the comments that this recipe calls for creaming of butter and sugar. But your ingredients state Oil OR butter. So how should I go about with the recipe if I am using Oil?

Deepika, the recipe states milk or buttermilk. Use either one of those.
For a moist crumb I use buttermilk. Combination of vinegar and buttermilk makes the batter slightly acidic which results in moist cupcakes. The more the acid in a batter the more tender the cupcake will be. Hope this helps!

I tried this recipe & I have couple of questions.
1. My cupcake was dense . is that okay ? if not then what the solution.
2. I have used regular sugar that comes in big bazar kinds is that okay or do i have to make it in powdered form before mixing it with butter.
3. My cup cake top layer was a bit hard. Dont know why.

Thanks for trying the recipe Tanya. These cupcakes turn out very light and fluffy. If they turned out dense then the possible reasons are –
1. Over-mixing of batter. Over-mixing results in dense and chewy textured cupcakes. Mix the batter until all the ingredients are well blended.
2.This recipe calls for creaming of butter and sugar. Granulated sugar (the one you have used) is much more difficult to cream as compared to superfine sugar because of its large crystal size. This could be a possible reason why the cupcakes turned dense. Creaming butter & sugar incorporates air in a batter. That’s what make a cupcake light and fluffy.
3. Couple of reasons for cupcakes to become hard on top – If your oven temperature is too hot or if the cupcakes were placed too close to the heating element.
Hope this answer your query!

Thanks for trying the recipe Shreya! Sorry to hear that your cupcakes did not turn out the way you had imagined.
Possible reason could be outdated baking powder and baking soda. Test the leavening agents by putting a teaspoon of baking powder in warm water and baking soda in vinegar. Stir. It should bubble, if not – they are outdated and use a fresh pack.

Please give it a try again as it’s important for me that you enjoy the cupcakes the same way as I do and many others who have successfully made it.

Hi ruchi,
Just wanted to know is it cake flour or normal maida.is it ok not to use cornflour in this recipe.n can I use half milk n half buttermilk in this instead of all milk or buttermilk.thanks in advance

Rashmi, I have used maida for this recipe.
The recipe states milk or buttermilk. Use either one of those. If you plan to substitute half n half for milk then use this ratio – 1/2 cup water and 1 cup of half n half to match the consistency of whole milk.
Thanks!

Hi,
I just wanted to know if vinegar is required in the recipe when am using buttermilk?
And since I use convection mode in my microven do you suggest to bake these at a comparatively lower temperature.?
Thank you

Kia, for a moist crumb I use buttermilk.
Combination of vinegar and buttermilk makes the batter slightly acidic which results in moist cakes. The more the acid in a cake the more tender the cake will be.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Lower the oven temperature only if it off by few degrees.
Thanks!

Hi, I made this recipe yesterday itself and was a superhit among my frnds n family..dey just loved it…only the issue dat hapnd is my cupcake was bit sticky n too moist..may I know y dey became like dat?
Also can v skip vinegar?

SJ, thanks for the feedback, glad you liked the cupcakes. Regarding the cupcakes being sticky –
1. Did you do the toothpick test and did it come out clean?
2. Was it a sticky top? If so, sticky top could be because of humidity.

Vinegar is a must for this recipe. It’s an acid that reacts with baking soda during baking and help a cake/cupcake to rise.
Hope this helps!

Ya I did the toothpick taste n dey came out clean…also some of them became very moist as I allowed to cool them…
Do we have to cool them under the fan or at there own in room temperature?
Also I guess, it may be because I think I added more milk that’s y they became soggy..can that b d reason ?

Thanks for helping Suman, that’s so sweet of you dear! I would like to clarify one thing here – the measurements that you have provided are for volume measurements (ML). So 1 cup of milk in volume measurement is 8 fluid ounce or 240 ml.
Metric conversions uses grams and kilograms to measure weight. So 1 cup of flour equals 120 -130 grams (depending on the flour). Same way 1/2 cup equals 60 gms and 1/4 cup equals 30 grams.

Sameeksha, oil and sugar together will not create a creaming reaction. It’s only possible with butter and sugar. Creaming butter and sugar together incorporate the maximum amount of air bubbles and will create a foam. This is not possible with liquid oils. Hope that answers your query!!

Mukta, it’s absolutely fine. Lemon juice CAN be used as an alternative acid ingredient, and it will not interfere with the flavor of the cake. Vinegar sours the milk and gives the cupcakes a great flavor and lemon juice will do the same thing. Acid helps baking powder active and make the cupcakes light and airy.

Tanisha, I will not suggest that. The ingredients mentioned in the recipe gave me perfect cupcakes. From what I believe, some ingredients in the recipes should not be altered. And when it comes to baking, just let them be. 🙂 Hope that answers your query! Feel free to email me if you have any more questions!!

Wonderful recipe and the way it’s been presented with step wise pictures makes it more interesting and easy. Now i have bookmarked it for the coming Valentine’s day.
However i have a query. I wanna make 12 cup cakes but in my oven, only 6 can be baked in one time. So can i prepare the batter for all 12 cupcakes in one go and bake them in 2 installments? What if the batter for 6 cupcakes will remain on shelf for half an hour?
Please do guide.

Thanks Shailender! Quite a debatable topic. I have done it in the past and some of my cupcakes turned out well but other doomed during baking, it depends a lot on cakes leavening agents. I would suggest keeping the leftover batter in the fridge while the first one is baking and use separate trays. Pouring cold batter in hot tray may result in sunken cupcakes. Hope that helps!

Wonderful recipe. I have tried many red velvet cup cake recipe but none was up to the mark. The cake was moist soft My cup cake had few small crack on the top. Please point where I could have gone wrong to rectify my mistake. Otherwise my mission of making a perfect red velvet cake accomplished. Thank you so much😊

Thanks for sharing your experience with me Padma. Glad you liked the recipe. If the batter was mixed for too long then it will create lot of air in the batter, and too much air will cause some crack on the surface due to steam. Even I had some cracks (see pic 13). Small splitting on top are common and if you like frosting then it can fix those cracks for you. 🙂

I followed the recipe to a T and it failed terribly. It tastes weird! They also sinks after cooling. The end product lacks of cake consistency. I’ve baked eggless cake before. This is definitely not a good recipe. Sorry and I am very disappointed in wasting all the ingredients m!

Thanks for sharing your experience with me V L. This is my tested and tried cupcake recipe and I am sorry that this recipe didn’t work out for you. Beating in too much air into the batter may have resulted into sunken cupcakes.

Excellent pictures! It’s better to avoid soda. It gives cake a different taste and smell. I think we can add 1tsp baking powder more to compensate it. I think rest of the ingredients can remain the same.
Condensed milk is an excellent egg replacement (like 1 cup for 1 cup of flour). We need not add sugar. If it becomes too sweet, then we can make a mixture of condensed milk and coconut milk (3:1).
Let me know your comments.

Thanks for your feedback Shyam. Both baking powder and baking soda are leavening agents that helps the cake to rise during baking. The recipe you are referring to, uses just 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Glad to learn about condensed milk as a egg replacement.

Hi, wanted by to check why my cakes do rise in the oven but after a while there is a big dent in the middle. It sinks in the middle of the cake. Can you help me understand why this happens and how I can change that.

Nishtha, Sunken cakes is a common problem and it can be solved. Here are couple of reasons why a cake sinks and forms a crater in the center.
1. Too much leavening (amount of baking soda and baking powder) in the cake. Because of that the cake rises pretty well in the oven but when taken out of the oven it sinks. SOLUTION – use fresh baking soda and baking powder and as the recipe suggests – measure them correctly with a proper set of measuring spoons.
2. Most valid reason – cake is not fully baked in the center and because of that it collapses. SOLUTION – Before removing the cake from the oven – lightly press the top of the cake and if it is firm then the cake is fully cooked. Double check the cake by inserting a toothpick in the center, if it comes out clean cake is done.
3. Oven temperatures vary – so if the cooking time stated is 25-30 minutes then to be on the safe side cook for 30 minutes. Hope that answers your query. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions.

I have used Wilton red food color in powdered form. Yes, you can use gel food color. If it has a dropper then I would suggest to start in small amounts since it’s thick and concentrated. Start with 1/2 a tablespoon and keep adding till you reach the desired color as shown in pic 9.

Thanks for stopping by Shilpi. Sour cream is a dairy product prepared by fermenting regular cream with certain bacteria. Yes, you can prepare it at home. To make sour cream at home – Take 1 cup of heavy cream, add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and start whisking it for 2-3 minutes. It will start to get thick and there you have it your very own homemade sour cream.

Richa, have not tried with ghee, yes oil works great too. Couple of reasons for cupcakes to become hard on top –
1. If your oven temperature is too hot.
2. If cupcakes were placed to close to the heating element, they will get cooked too much.

Drizzle some icing mix on top and let them sit, it will moistened the top. Hope this helps!